


Alliance

by Alley_Skywalker



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Ben Solo Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, First Meetings, M/M, Snark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-04-28 18:49:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14455551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alley_Skywalker/pseuds/Alley_Skywalker
Summary: The first time Ben Solo meets his husband-to-be is on their wedding day.





	Alliance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reeby10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeby10/gifts).



“Well, isn’t it the obstinate general himself.”

Hux straightens marginally, though Ben wouldn’t have thought that possible. “I prefer steadfast. Ben Solo.” Hux’s eyes run up and down his body in the same way he would examine a droid for sale. “You’re shorter than I imagined.”

Ben gives him a nasty look. Why does anyone think anything will come of this. A marriage alliance only works when it puts an end to the scheming and provocations of both parties. Ben doesn’t think that will happen. He’s fairly certain that neither does Hux. Ben knows his mother will never stop trying to expel what is left of the Firs Order and Snoke will certainly not give up his dreams for galaxy domination. If anything, this marriage allows him to insert his best general into the heart of the Rebel Territories. 

This isn’t a truce. It is, at most, a ceasefire. 

Ben does not understand why he must suffer for the sake of something so insignificant. 

This is the first time he has met General Hux in person. He had seen holograms before, but they were nothing like the real thing. Hux is much shorter and slimmer than Ben, but with dignified military poise. He looks good in a blindingly white-and-gold parade uniform, with large epaulets and intricate fastenings. His ginger hair is combed back and his sharp cheekbones give his face a very precise look, just like everything else about him. 

Ben might almost be attracted to him if everything else about Hux wasn’t so cold and repressed. 

Ben had enough repression during his Jedi training to last a lifetime.  
Ben himself is in dark green robes and black gloves. The crest of the New Republic glistens brightly on his chest and is the brightest spot in his entire entourage. Everything about him and Hux clashes and contrasts, from their coloring, to their clothes. Ben was initially going to wear his Jedi robes, but the decision was made to put him into state formals to accentuate the political gravity of the event. His mother knows best about such things. 

Ben doesn’t really mind. The Force is like home to him, but he never felt completely comfortable with the maxims of the Jedi. No wonder his grandfather had gone mad with the repression they attempted to force on him and decided to break loose at any cost. 

Ben fantasies about doing the same sometimes. 

He and Hux stand on a dais in front of a square packed with stormtroopers and Rebellion flyboys as well as hundreds of civilians. High Officers of the First Order and high-ranking politicians from the New Republic and the Rebellion face off against each other from the two sides of the raised platform. Hux and Ben stand side-by-side at the front, before a ceremonially decorated table with documents carefully laid out in a display across its mahogany surface. General Organa and Supreme Leader Snoke stand on either side of the table, not looking at each other but very aware of the other nonetheless. 

This is the first time Ben has seen Snoke in person as well, but his face is obscured by a ceremonial hood. 

“How long do you think this farce will last?” Hux wonders under his breath. 

“Do you mean for long will you need to deal with me?”

“Stay out of my head,” Hux snarls. 

“I can’t help it. You’re broadcasting all over the place.”

“I’m not—” Hux cuts himself off and stares antagonistically at the treaties and marriage contract laid our before them. 

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Ben asks. 

“Probably no, but you already know either way.”

“I’m thinking that they could have let us have some time to get to know each other before our wedding day.”

Ben doesn’t need to read Hux’s mind to see the intensely negative reaction his phrasing elicits. But Hux just says coldly, “Would it have made a difference.” He doesn’t deign to make it a question. 

Ben is tired. Tired of being a political pawn in the hands of his family. His mother wants him to be the heir she thinks she deserves, Uncle Luke wants him to be an heir to the Jedi ways. His father… Force only knows what Han wants. He was absent so often before the war started that Ben isn’t sure his father ever even had a vision for him. No one had ever hurt him, but no one seemed to be particularly interested in him outside of their own interests either. At least that is how it had always felt.  
   
And now he is stuck with a husband who despises him and whom Ben has no reason to like or trust either. 

In such a crowded place, he feels terribly lonely. 

Hux says, “Don’t pretend like you want this any more than I do.”

“I don’t,” Ben mutters. But is he wrong to want to know or be knows by the man he’s marrying? 

Someone is giving a speech. 

Ben is thinking of all the things he has ever been told about Hux. None of them are good. Although, there is something admirable in Hux’s persistence, his steadfastness, his ability to move through the world like a knife through butter, and all of it without the Force. 

Ben reaches out and tries to carefully determine what Hux is thinking without alerting him. Hux’s thoughts are strangely hard to grasp. He doesn’t have Force shields the way Force sensitives do but he seems to know how to keep his mind blank enough that a surface probe will not reveal much. Ben catalogue this as both another trait in his new husband that is both admirable and disconcerting. 

Ben has never been able to achieve such a state of discipline. No matter how much the Jedi had tried. 

He becomes aware of the fact that everyone is looking at them. It is time to sign the contract. Hux, composed and very still, seems to hesitate. Exasperated, Ben steps forward, takes the ceremonial stylus and scribbles his name on the contract. He looks up at Hux as though issuing a challenge. Slowly, calmly, Hux walks over and plucks the stylus from Ben’s hand. Ben watches him sign, precise and neat as everything about him. 

The crowd cheers and Hux raises his eyes to Ben. This time he is broadcasting his thoughts intentionally. _Touch me and I’ll murder you._

Ben smirks. Well, he did always like a challenge.


End file.
